13 August 2013

Art as Humanity: Islamism and Music

In late August, the Al Maghrib Institute, an extreme Wahhabi group, is hosting a seminar on “entertainment and recreation in Islam.” The seminar will include a discussion on “how to advise someone to stop listening to music.”

The Al Maghrib Institute is based in Texas but also has branches in the UK. In 2008, the ‘underwear bomber’ Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, attended seminars by Al Maghrib in both London and Houston. The Institute’s Director, Mohammad AlShareef, claims that Jews control the media and are “cursed.”

.... Ayatollah Khomeini, the theocrat who established Iran’s Islamic Republic, once told the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci that, “Music dulls the mind, because it involves pleasure and ecstasy, similar to drugs.” Fallaci asked Khomeini of Bach, Beethoven and Verdi, to which he responded, “I do not know their names.” [Harry’s Place] Read more